


Barking ARC's

by OutcastTrip1995



Series: Mer Clones AU [2]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: All will be revealed later in the series ;), Alternate Universe, Body Horror, Body Modification, It continues!, The Seppies will stop at nothing to gain an advantage!, Transformation, Yeah they're not the same species as Rex, mermaid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-13
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2019-07-11 20:04:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,329
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15979490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OutcastTrip1995/pseuds/OutcastTrip1995
Summary: Echo and Fives go a-hunting for their missing Captain. What they find ... is not what they wanted to





	Barking ARC's

**Author's Note:**

> The second installment (and the last one I had already fully written so you might have to wait a while for the next one! ^^'')
> 
> Again ... yeah; transformations are not pretty and they hurt. You have been warned.
> 
> [ 'blah ] = mers communicating

“Did I mention that I don’t like this Fives?” 

“Oh … once or twice Echo. Once or twice.” 

Fives rolled his eyes in annoyance as the two ARC troopers slunk silently through the unusually quiet facility. He had to admit he didn’t like the situation either, but Echo didn’t have to keep mentioning it every five minutes. It did start to grate on the nerves somewhat. Pushing open a door, Fives let his brother enter first to clear the room before following himself. 

“Any sign of the Captain?” 

Echo shook his head in annoyance as he pulled out a scanner. 

“That’s a negative Fives. There’re no lifeforms in here.” 

“Oh come _on_!” 

Fives smacked the wall in his annoyance, grinding his teeth. 

“This is the fifth or sixth room we’ve checked, and still no sign of the Captain?!” 

Echo desperately shushed his agitated sibling, looking around warily. 

“Fives be quiet! We don’t know what there is in here.” 

He pointed towards a door on the other side of the room, heading over as he spoke. 

“Let’s check in here, there might be something.” 

Fives reluctantly nodded, following Echo into the next room. It too appeared empty, but for several medical beds and what appeared to be a large tank of water. Confused as to the tank’s purpose, Fives made his way over to the tank, removing his helmet as he did so. A frown twisted his features when he noticed a strange lump curled up in the far corner of the tank. 

“Hey Echo, come check this out vod.” 

It didn’t take long for his curious sibling to walk over, also removing his helmet and setting it down next to Fives’s as he looked in the tank, ignoring the slightly sickly sweet smell in the air. It was a lab after all, they all smelled weird. He frowned, tilting his head to one side in confusion. 

“What is it?” 

*** 

Rex had been dozing quietly in the corner of the tank, quietly planning and replanning his escape and how to get himself cured, before he got too used to having a tail instead of legs. Voices on the other side of the tank though got his attention, startling him out of his thoughts. Pushing off from the tank floor, he twisted in the water and flicked his tail hard enough to send him to the other side of the tank where he’d heard the voices, but not so hard that he swam face first into the tank again. The former 501st Captain’s eyes widened at who he saw, putting both of his hands on the transparisteel tank wall as he tried to tell them to get out as fast as they could. But all that escaped him were the same clicks and squeaks that he’d managed to make the last time he’d tried talking! 

*** 

“ _Captain_?!” 

Fives’s jaw dropped at the sight of his Captain … with a _tail_ instead of _legs_?! What were the Seppies doing in this twisted facility to have caused such a change, and why were they doing it? The ARC frowned again as Rex appeared to try and tell them something, only no actual words that he or Echo could understand actually came out. Just clicks, whistles and squeaks. 

“Captain … Rex … I can’t understand a word you’re saying.” 

“And neither can I.” 

Echo’s frown mirrored Fives’s as he looked at the clearly no longer human Captain. This went beyond anything he’d ever studied before, he didn’t know how to handle it! And he hated not knowing how to handle something! He watched as Rex smashed his fist against the transparisteel in frustration, thinking quietly before blinking in surprise as Rex let out a startled clicking squeak and flipped over, swimming away from the tank wall again. What had startled the Captain? 

“Clones.” 

Echo winced before he and Fives whirled around to throw near identical glares at the Skakoan scientist in front of them. Fives raised his twin DC-17 pistols, aiming at the scientist’s head and where he guessed their heart was. If Skakoan’s even had hearts. 

“What did you do to our Captain?!” 

The scientist appeared unfazed as they wheeled over to a control panel and plucked a datapad off it, seemingly just reading the information contained within. Fives let out a low growl, insulted that the scientist was just dismissing them. 

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” 

Finally he was acknowledged as the Skakoan turned their head to face both him and Echo. But instead of addressing them, the scientist spoke to one of the droids hovering near the ceiling. A blinking light on the droid showed that it was recording the entire situation as it unfolded. 

“Test of Mer Serum in gaseous form, Subjects 002 and 003, commencing.” 

Echo’s eyes widened, realizing what was going on a fraction of a second before Fives did. There was some sort of unknown gas in the room … and the two of them had taken their helmets off! It must have been what had caused the room to smell so sickly sweet when they’d first come in! Turning and cursing his and his brother’s stupidity, the ARC Trooper ran back over to the table where his and Fives’s helmets were. He had almost made it when a searing pain erupted in his legs and send him crashing to the ground with a yell. The pain was excruciating, and Echo struggled to get his leg armour and boots off even with Fives’s help as his panicking brother ran over to aid him. The armour just felt too tight and ... and _wrong_! It _hurt_! Finally he managed to get the armour off and just in time, as Fives too succumbed to whatever gas had managed to sneak into their bodies. The two clones lay on the ground, thrashing in agony and screaming as their bodies were altered against their will. 

*** 

Fives barely managed to remain coherent, although Echo soon passed out from the pain. Gritting his teeth, the stubborn ARC Trooper looked down at his legs where the majority of the pain was located. Taking off his armour had helped to reduce the pain somewhat, but soon a new, equally painful feeling erupted and his legs felt like thousands of tiny needles were trying to push free of his skin. He gasped, incoherent swear words escaping him as the pricking feeling continued, spreading down to his toes and up to his stomach. Finally the ARC’s almost scared curiosity outweighed his agony and fear and he shifted his bodysuit trousers down and off his body, knowing that the scientist couldn’t see him or Echo thanks to the tables in the way. What he saw caused him to scream with horror. 

“ _What the hell_?!” 

His legs were covered in a short, smooth fur, the same dark chocolate colour as his hair. Shivering with shock and fear, Fives carefully reached down and ran a hand along one of his fur covered legs, praying that he was just hallucinating. But the feeling of the smooth, slightly silky fur under his fingers very quickly dispelled the notion that he was suffering from a rather vivid hallucination. Gulping fearfully, Fives just stared at his legs, dreading what changes they may go through next. He soon found out as he felt a bizarre … almost melting sensation in his legs. His golden brown eyes widened as slowly, painfully, his legs started to meld together, soon forming one single limb with two awkwardly placed feet stuck to the bottom of the strange new appendage. 

Suddenly pain exploded in his hips and Fives let out an almost animalistic roar of agony as his hips cracked and reshaped, forcing his body into a new position as his spine extended down to the tip of the limb that had replaced his legs. Tears trailed unbidden down his cheeks, and Fives was glad that Echo was unconscious, so that he was spared the worst of the pain of this disturbing transformation. As he watched, his new limb filled out slightly, new and powerful muscles shifting and forming under the fur covered skin, as well as a slight layer of blubber that got a vicious glare off Fives before more pain decided to make its unwelcome presence felt. 

The ARC Trooper thrashed and screamed as what was left of his ankles twisted and melded together before his feet stretched out into what were unmistakably flippers. The new flippers thrashed about in an ungainly manner, slapping uncomfortably against the cold, unyielding floor of the room. Then, as soon as the pain had arrived, it stopped. Fives just lay there gasping in pain, eyes wide with an almost feral fear and pain as he desperately tried to get some air back into his lungs. Pushing himself up on shaking arms, Fives clumsily dragged himself over to Echo and shook his brother’s shoulder. 

“Echo … c’mon vod’ika … Echo wake up!” 

“Huh … what?” 

Echo blinked blearily up at Fives, seemingly unaware of the transformation that the two of them had gone through as he struggled up onto his hands. 

“Fives? What … what happened?” 

Fives’s silence scared the crap out of Echo and the ARC looked around in confusion, eyes widening in a mixture of horror, anger and disbelief as he looked at the new limb that had replaced his legs … and the near identical limb that replaced his brother’s. He shook his head in denial, a slight haze of panic in his honey brown eyes as he continued to shake his head. 

“No … no … no, no _no_!!! This is just a really weird hallucination, nothing more!” 

Sighing and knowing he had to stop his brother before Echo worked himself into a full blown panic attack, Fives reached across and gently slapped where Echo’s knees once were. Echo stopped his panicked ramblings, glaring at his brother. 

“Ow …” 

The ramifications of what had just happened hit the regulations loving ARC hard and he let out a low moan. 

“If … if I felt that … then …” 

He looked up at Fives, eyes pleading the other ARC to tell him it was all just a sick joke. 

“This … this is real. Isn’t it?” 

Fives was about to respond when a sharp pain erupted in his mouth, causing the ARC to cry out in fear and panic. Echo grabbed at his brother’s shoulder, trying to see what was wrong despite the pain that had just bloomed in his own mouth. 

“ _Fives_!!!” 

Fives looked up at his brother, coughing painfully as blood dripped out of his mouth and down his chin. A violent coughing fit followed by several strange clinking sounds got both ARC’s attention and they looked down at the floor. Echo let out a pained groan, the blood draining rapidly from his face at the sight of the bloodied teeth that were now lying on the floor. Feeling his jaws throb again, Fives reached up to his currently toothless mouth and tentatively reached in, wincing and crying out when he cut his fingers on the new, flesh shredding teeth that were trying to push their way through his gums. Helpless to stop the teeth from growing in, all Fives could do was watch as Echo went through the same terrifying change. Both ARC’s stared at each other in horror, or more to the point, stared in horror at the new fangs that graced the other’s mouths. What … what had _happened_ to them?! 

*** 

“Well … the serum appeared to work as calculated, although the differing species was unexpected.” 

Both ARC’s jumped violently, turning awkwardly and staring up at the Skakoan scientist with a mixture of pure rage and wary fear. If the scientist could smile, they probably would be as they looked impassively down at the two near identical mers. 

Fives let out a feral snarl, opening his mouth to shout at the scientist. But all that escaped his throat was a series of strange honking barks and growls. Fives grabbed his throat in shock, letting out a startled bark as he lost his balance and hit the ground hard. Scrabbling back up onto his hands again, he glared coldly at the laughing scientist before letting out another bark, this one angrier than startled, as he was picked up from behind by a droid and roughly hauled over to Rex’s tank. Another set of seething barks told the ARC that Echo was also being treated in a similar manner. Both of the former clones were dropped into the tank, enraged barks escaping the duo as they snarled up at the droids for the indignity they had just had to endure, but the only reaction they got was the droid’s departure. Growling, Fives was the first to take the proverbial plunge and dived beneath the water, Echo reluctantly following as they tried to figure out the mechanics of how they were supposed to move. 

“[Well … they could have at least provided us with a manual.]” 

Fives flinched, looking over at his brother with wide eyes. He’d heard the barks that had escaped Echo as they had been dragged over to the tank, but now that he wasn’t screaming his own abuse, he could hear his brother’s dry, sarcastic tone overlaying the honk like barks. Then again, they were the same type of creature now, it would be logical that they’d understand one another. 

Squirming free of his now cumbersome armour, Fives just sighed and nodded cordially in Rex’s direction as the other transformed clone swam over to them. Turning back to his brother, he shrugged. 

“[I didn’t expect them to. This isn’t exactly something you can write a manual on.]” 

He frowned when Echo ignored him in favour of swimming, read frantically paddling, back up to the surface. The younger of the two ARC’s frowned as he eavesdropped on the scientist’s conversation, eyes widening with anger as it clicked what was going to happen next. Snarling, he allowed himself to sink again and clumsily swam back over to his brother and Rex. 

“[They’re gonna contaminate the Resolute’s water supply next!]”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! What do you think?


End file.
